HONOLULU -- The state health department is asking for emergency funds to deal with overcrowding. Hospital staff members said the number of assaults by patients is up because of the overcrowding.

There are 192 patients at the Hawaii State Hospital. That is the highest number in a decade. The facility was built for a capacity of 178.

"We really don't have control over our front door," acting hospital administrator Bill Elliott said.

Elliott said when the courts commit a mental patient to the hospital they have to take them.

"It's overcrowded now. There're too much people, (it) causes agitation. With the agitation, assaults and a lot of seclusion," acute treatment coordinator Mack Kalahiki said.

Kalahiki deals with the most dangerous patients. He said the staff is administering more drugs to help keep the patients calm during the overcrowding.

"It also causes burnout on the units for the staff," Kalahiki said.

Normally, at midmorning, a classroom would be full of patients and staff. However, as of Monday, the hospital stopped holding classes in its rehabilitation mall, because there are so many patients, that the hospital couldn't guarantee everybody's safety there. Classes are still being held, but patients are kept in the wards.

Activities like auto detailing and gardening are still happening, though.

One reason that more patients are going there and staying longer is crystal methamphetamine, or "ice," which changes people's mental status, sometimes permanently.

"With ice, not everybody is going to come back to normal. So, they end up staying longer at the hospital," state health director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said.

"The majority of our patients are dually-diagnosed. They either have a mental illness and a drug or alcohol issue to deal with," Elliott said.

The health department is asking lawmakers for an emergency appropriation of $11 million for hospital and community mental care. The hospital has converted former staff homes to cottages for 16 more patients. The cottages could open next month. Plans are under way to open as many as 17 more group homes in the community.

On Tuesday, Fukino established a special task force to deal with the hospital's overcrowding problems. She said the task force will help the department's mental health division coordinate more with the hospital. "That will help us (to) transition people out of the hospital and into the community," she said.

Fukino said the health department's mental health patient load has more than doubled the last few years, going from 4,500 in 2002 to 9,756 last year. Those figures include hospitalized patients as well as outpatients in clinics around the state.

She attributes that increase to more outreach. "We have our 24-hour hotline. We're actually looking for people much more aggressively than 10 years ago," she said.

"If you open the way and provide a mechanism for people to contact you, they're going to call. And that's a good thing," Fukino said. "We want to de-stigmatize mental illness. We don't want to hide them away or wait until they break the law."